Fiona Bunn is one of five newcomers to the GB Senior Squad. Credit: JWOC2019 Denmark.
The GB 2020 Senior Squad was announced at the end of January, news somewhat buried by the departure of the UK from the European Union on the same day.
On The Red Line We add our congratulations to the newcomers, and we thank those leaving for their contribution in previous years.
There are 24 athletes. 18 are based in the UK and six in Scandinavia. 15 of them have run at a World Championships. Coincidentally, 24 was also the size of the initial squads announced for 2018 and 2019.
It is an achievement to be invited to join. It brings cachet. It doesn't of itself bring any financial benefit though; there is no official squad training, and it is not referenced in the selection policy. Membership may help provide evidence on the policy's additional criteria, such as commitment to a positive team environment, but it is not the only way to do that. The GB international teams can and often do select non-squad athletes. Graham Gristwood ran the long at last year's World Championships.
New to the squad this year are Adam Potter (Bristol O.K.), Ben Mitchell (Swansea Bay O.C.), Cecilie Andersen (Bristol O.K.) and Sarah Jones (Edinburgh Southern O.C.), all relatively young runners who ran in the later rounds of last year's World Cup. Another newcomer is first year senior Fiona Bunn (Thames Valley O.C.), who won two medals at last year's Junior World Championships (JWOC).
Welcome
Adam Potter
Adam Potter, World Cup Round 3 2019, by Fred Hartelt
Adam ran the middle distance in World Cup Round 3 Switzerland last year. IOF Record.
Ben Mitchell
Ben Mitchell, World Cup Final 2019, from event photo album
Ben has silver medals from British Long and British Night Championships. He ran for GB in Switzerland and China last year, World Cup Rounds 3 and 4. IOF Record
Cecilie Andersen
Cecilie Andersen, World Cup Round 3 2019, by On The Red Line
Cecilie won the British Middle Distance Championships in 2018, and was second in last year's JK Sprint and British Long. She ran World Cup Rounds 3 and 4 in 2019. IOF Record.
Fiona Bunn
Fiona Bunn, JWOC 2019 Denmark.
Fiona ran the four JWOCs from 2016 to 2019. At her final one, last year in Denmark, she won the silver medal in the middle distance, and was second leg for the gold medal winning Women's Relay Team. She is the British Long Champion in W20 for 2019.
Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones, World Cup Round 3 2019, by On The Red Line
Sarah was second in last year's British Middle Champs and third in the British Long. She also has several relay medals from the JK and British. She ran in World Cup Round 3 last year. IOF Record.
Thankyou
Three runners not joining the squad this year have all run several times at a World Championships.
Alasdair McLeod
Alasdair McLeod in 2018.
The current British Long Distance Champion (and British Relay Champion with Airienteers), has run three World Champs including the long at his home World Champs in 2015. Ali won the JK in 2018, and is currently fourth in the National Rankings.
On The Red Line Ali has been very helpful and supportive of this website since we set up two years ago, and we thank him for that. You may remember one of our favourite notes: that he did a Park Run on the day of his wedding in 2018, in quality company.
Some orienteers were seen at last week's Harrogate #parkrun Story: https://t.co/8kfOv5N5tv Best wishes for the future to Alasdair and Bryony from @OnTheRedLineO pic.twitter.com/swru0CqjXU
— On The Red Line (@OnTheRedLineO) 8 November 2018
Incidentally Ali has the 14th fastest time for the 650+ times the Richmond Park (South-West London) Parkrun has happened. It was supposed to be a gentle warmup before other training and video prototyping (what later became the "Get Up To Speed" series), but there were some fast guys from Hercules Wimbledon A.C. to keep company.
Charlotte Watson
Charlotte Watson, World Champs Long Race 2019, by Philip Gristwood.
Charlotte has run the World Champs Long Race four times achieving 25th to 38th. She has also run the middle and relays, and was part of the team that took the GB Women back to Division 1 with their results at last year's World Champs.
Hollie Orr
Hollie Orr at the World Champs in Estonia, by Maprunner
Hollie has run at seven World Champs, most recently Estonia in 2017 where she was 16th in the long, 32nd in the middle and part of the forest relay team that came 7th.
She was in the winning Venla team in 2016 with Halden SK.
She missed the Overall JK title in 2018 by 2 seconds, as her margin in winning the long was not quite sufficient to make up for 5th in the middle. On The Red Line Report.
2020 - First Sprint-only World Champs
In 2020 it is the first Sprint Orienteering World Championships, with Sprint Relay, Individual Sprint and the new Knockout Sprint. Denmark host, from 6th - 11th July, with the racing in Kolding, Fredericia and Vejle.
Selection
You may like our news item from last September about selection for the British Teams at the internationals.
Major International Competitions
World Cup Round 1 - Switzerland
- 21st May - Long
- 23rd May - Knockout Sprint
- 24th May - Sprint
- 7th July - Sprint Relay
- 9th July - Knockout Sprint
- 11th July - Sprint
European Championships - Estonia
- 20th August - Long
- 22nd August - Middle
- 23rd August - Relay
- 1st October - Long
- 3rd October - Middle
- 4th October - Relay
Other Nations' Squads
By their nature the links in this part of the article are liable to have their content change and/or become out-of-date. Our text reflects the situation in February 2020.
As you will understand the main orienteering countries have significant money for international competition and Britain (where in any case National "performance" funding is targetted at winning Olympic medals) doesn't. The British athletes do truly find their own way.
Sweden
The A-Landslaget has 11 runners: four women and seven men. They are: Tove Alexandersson, Sara Hagström, Karolin Ohlsson, Lina Strand, Gustav Bergman, William Lind, Jerker Lysell, Martin Regborn, Albin Ridefelt, Johan Runesson, Emil Svensk.
The Development team has seven runners.
Note the size of the organization.
Switzerland
There are nine A runners: four women and five men. They are Simona Aebersold, Sabine Hauswirth, Julia Jakob, Elena Roos, Joey Hadorn, Florian Howald, Daniel Hubmann, Martin Hubmann, Matthias Kyburz.
In the next tier there are 17 "B" runners, and two Under-23s.
Norway
There are nine A runners: four women and five men. They are Sigrid Alexandersen, Andrine Benjaminsen, Silje Ekroll Jahren, Kamilla Olaussen, Magne Daehli, Eskil Kinnerberg, Olav Lundanes, Gaute Hallan Steiwer, Kasper Fosser.
The "next-generation", under-25 team is twelve strong.
Finland
The team has eleven runners: seven women and four men. They are Anna Haataja, Venla Harju, Saila Kinni, Miika Kirmula, Elias Kuukka,, Aleksi Niemi, Anna Närhi, Olli Ojanaho, Merja Rantanen, Maija Sianoja, Marika Teini.
There are 11 runners in the "team 2025".
Czech Republic (Czechia)
The top level "RDE" has five runners: three women and two men. They are Vendula Horčičková, Tereza Janošíková, Denisa Kosová, Vojtěch Král, Miloš Nykodým.
The next level, "RDA", has 13 runners, and there are five runners in an under-23 group.
Austria
There are nine runners in the groups A1 and A2: four women and five men. They are: A1: Ursula Kadan, Robert Merl, Gernot Ymsén, and A2: Anja Arbter, Matthias Gröll, Mathias Peter, Laura Ramstein, Matthias Reiner, Anna Simkovics.
There is a development group of eight runners.
France
The senior team has 25 runners: seven women and 18 men.
Denmark
There is a World Class Group of 5, and an elite group of 12.